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OPERATION AL AMPLIFIER CIRCUITS

81 Op Amp Circuits Operational Amplifier ICs are very widely used in analog signal processing systems. Their obvious use is as amplifier, however they can be used for many other purposes for example in the active filters we considered in part of the series of pages on Analog and Audio. This section loo!s at the basic way Op" Amps wor!, considers the common types, and some typical applications. The details of the circuitry inside an op"amp integrated circuit can be very complex, and can vary from type to type, and even from manufacturer to manufacturer. They can also ma!e use of semiconductor effects and constructions that you don#t normally encounter outside of an IC. $or clarity, here we will %ust loo! at a simplified version of the design. The basic circuit arrangement is shown in figure &'(.

Tr1/2 form a Long-Tailed Pair differential amplifier for which Tr3 provides a Constant Current source for their common emitters. The input pair drive one of
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the output transistors )Tr5* directly. The other output transistor )Tr6* is driven via Tr4. Ta!en together Tr5/6 form a Class A output stage. In this !ind of circuit it us usual to have the values chosen so that and , and to ensure that the transistors have similar gain values. $or simplicity we can assume the transistors all have a very high gain so we can treat the base currents as being so small that we can ignore them and assume they are essentially +ero. ,e can therefore understand how the system wor!s as follows,hen the two input are the same )i.e. when and approx and * the currents through

will be the same each will pass an emitter and collector current of . This means that the current levels on the two transistors, it follows that the value of the potential difference across is the same

Tr4 and Tr5, will be almost identical. .ince the same current flows though as that across . /ow the diode in series with means that the voltage applied to the base of Tr6 is one %unction"drop higher than the potential at that end of the resistor. This counters the voltage drop between the base and emitter of Tr6. 0ence the potential across that the potential across is the same as that across . )and hence the . i.e. we find e1uals that across

In effect, the result of the above is that the potential across current that Tr6 draws* is set by the current through across

. .imilarly, the potential

)and hence the current provided by Tr5* is set by the current through

. ,hen the currents through Tr5 and Tr6 are the same. As a result when we connect a load we find that no current is available for the load, hence the amplifier applies no output voltage to the load, .

0owever, if we now alter the input voltage so that we find that the currents through the output devices Tr5 and Tr6 will now try to differ as the system is no longer 2balanced#. The difference between the currents through Tr5 and Tr6 now flows through the load. 0ence an imbalance in the input voltages causes a voltage an current to be applied to the load. The magnitude of this current and voltage will depend upon the gains of the transistors in the circuit and the chosen resistor values. The system acts as a Differential Amplifier. ,hen the output will be positive and proportional to

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. ,hen the output will be negative but still proportional to )which will now be negative*. This form of circuit is 1uite a neat one in many ways. It acts in a 2balanced# manner so that any imbalance in the inputs creates an e1uivalent imbalance in the output device currents, thus producing an output. .ince the operation is largely in terms of the internal currents the precise choice of the power line voltages, and , doesn#t have a large effect on the circuit#s operation. ,e %ust need the power lines levels to be 2large enough# for the circuit to be able to wor!. $or this reason typical Op"Amps wor! when powered with a wide range of power line voltages typically from a minimum of to 3olts. In practice this usually means that the output is limited to a range of voltages a few volts less than the range set by the power lines. In most cases lines are used, but this isn#t essential in every case. 3olt

4ue to the way the circuit operates it has a good Common Mode Rejection Ratio )C566* i.e. any common )shared* change in both input levels is largely ignored or 2re%ected#. 5ost real Op"Amps use many more transistors than the simple example shown in figure &'( and hence can have a very high gain. Their operation is otherwise almost the same as you#d expect from the circuit shown. This means they tend to share its limitations. $or example, the pure Class A means that there is usually limit to the available output current )double the 1uiescent level* and that this can be 1uite small if we wish to avoid having high power dissipation in the Op"Amp. $or a typical 2small signal# Op" Amp the maximum available output current is no more than a few milliamps, although higher power Op"Amps may include Class A7 stages to boost the available current and power. There are an enormous variety of detailed types of Op"Amp. 5any include features li!e Compensation where an internal capacitance is used to control the open"loop gain as a function of fre1uency to help ensure stability when feedbac! is applied between the output and the input)s*. This is why common Op"Amp types such as the 89( family have a very high gain at low fre1uencies )below a few hundred 0ert+* which falls away steadily at higher fre1uencies. 5any Op"Amps such as the T:;8( family use $<T input devices to minimise the re1uired input current level. Although the details of performance vary, they all are conceptually e1uivalent to the arrangement shown in figure &'(. 82 Op-Amps as Amplifier Stages The obvious use of Op"Amp ICs is as signal amplifiers. In general terms these are of four main types. Inverting, /on"Inverting, 4ifferential, and 7uffers. ,e
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have already discussed some of these in previous sections but figure &'= shows a comparison of the re1uired circuits, all using the same basic Op"Amp. It is conventional to call the two inputs Inverting and Non-Inverting depending upon the sign of the resulting output and the gain when a signal is fed to the relevant input whilst the other is connected to +ero volts )shown as an <arth symbol*. In figure &'( was shown entering the non"inverting input and entering the inverting input. It is also conventional to label these inputs with a plus sign for the non"inverting input and a minus sign for the inverting input to indicate the sign of the gain that will be applied to the signal entering via that connection.

In each case the behaviour of the amplifier is controlled by the feedbac! from the output to the inverting input )i.e. the input where is shown to be applied in figure &'(*. >iven an Op"Amp with a very high open"loop gain we can

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expect the voltages at the two inputs to always be very similar when the output is a modest voltage. e.g. If the amplifier has an open loop differential voltage gain of )1uite a common value* then when the output is, say, (; 3olts, the two inputs will only differ in voltage by ;'(microvolts. In a circuit li!e the Inverting arrangement the non"inverting input is connected to <arth )nominally +ero volts* directly. 0ence the output always ad%usts to !eep the inverting input to the Op"Amp at almost +ero volts )give or ta!e a few microvolts*. 0ence the input to an inverting input connection sees a resistance ) in these examples* whose other end is connected to a Virtual art!, so sees an effective input resistance of . .ignals presented to a non"inverting input in the other arrangements see an input which the Op"Amp tends to ad%ust to almost e1ual the input. 0ence the non"inverting arrangement has a very high input resistance. The output impedance of all the arrangements is very low provided we don#t as! for more current than the Op"Amp can supply since the feedbac! tries always to assert the output voltage re1uired. 8.3 Filters T!"e C!"tr!ls a"# $% Although often used to amplify signals, Op"Amps have many other uses. ,e have already seen in part how an amplifier with a differential input can be used as part of a active filter. In principle, these active filters are %ust feedbac! amplifiers with highly fre1uency"specific feedbac! networ!s that manipulate the closed"loop gain as a controlled function of the signal fre1uency. in addition to the high?low?bandpass )or band re%ect* filters outlined in part there are a number of other fre1uency"dependent functions which Op"Amps can be used to perform. 0ere we can ta!e the example of Tone Controls circuits sometimes used in audio systems. Although Tone Controls are now rarely provided in domestic 0i"$i e1uipment, they still appear in some professional items and can be very useful in improving less"than"perfect source material. Their main tas! is to ad%ust the fre1uency response to obtain a more natural result. 0owever they can also be useful for special purposes such as deliberately manipulating the sound. In scientific areas beyond 0i"$i some form of ad%ustment of the fre1uency response can be very useful in 2pre "!itening# the spectrum of a signal. This means boosting some fre1uencies and attenuating others in order to obtain a spectrum which has a more uniform power spectral density. It allows recording or transmission systems to be used more efficiently and provide an optimum signal to noise performance.

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The classic form of tone control in 0i"$i is the 7axandall arrangement shown in figure &' . This arrangement is called a 7axandall tone control, named after its inventor. ,e can understand how it wor!s by noticing that it is actually a development of the non"inverting amplifier arrangement shown in figure &'=. 0owever the normal pair of feedbac! resistors have been replaced by 1uite complicated arrangements of resistance and capacitance. The circuit is laid out in a symmetric manner. In this case the impedance between the signal input and the inverting input of the amplifier is and the inverting input is and the impedance between the output . The voltage gain is therefore now

where both and may be complex and have fre1uency"dependent values. 0owever if we set both potentiometers to their central positions we find that

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despite being individually fre1uency dependent we get at all fre1uencies. 0ence when the pots are centered the fre1uency response is nominally flat and has a gain of . 0owever if we move either potentiometer setting away from its central position we imbalance the system and produce a value of which varies with fre1uency.

Consider first the effect of the upper pot )the one*. At high fre1uencies the pair of 98 n$ capacitors act as a short circuit and clamp the three wires of this (;;! pot together. 0ence ad%usting the (;;! pot does not alter the high fre1uency behaviour of the circuit. 0owever at lower fre1uencies the impedance of the capacitors rises and the pot has some effect. 0ence the (;;! pot acts as a #ass Control and allows us to boost or cut the relative gain for low fre1uency signals. /ow consider the lower pot )the one*. 0ere the effect of the associated capacitors is reversed. The (; n$ capacitors mean that the arm of the circuit which contains the 98! pot essentially loses contact with the input and output at low fre1uencies. 0ence the 98! pot has not effect upon low fre1uency signals, but it does upon high fre1uencies. It therefore acts as a Tre$le Control and can be used to boost or cut the relative gain at high fre1uencies. 3arious forms of Tone ad%ustment can be applied. $or example, the %rap!ic &ualiser circuits which are popular in studios and @A systems use a ban! of bandpass filters to brea! the signal#s fre1uency range into chun!s. <ach fre1uency section is then amplified and the results added )or subtracted* bac! together with various controlled gains to rebuild the overall signal. 7y altering the relative gains of the bandpass filters specific tonal bands can be boosted or cut to alter the sound. These complex circuits do reveal one of the main potential problems of Tonal ad%ustments. Any slight unwanted imbalances mean that it can be almost impossible to get a flat response should it be desiredA $or this reason, professional or high 1uality system use close tolerance components and usually have a 2defeat# switch that allows the signal to bypass the entire system when tonal ad%ustments are not re1uired. >iven the good 1uality of signals that are often available these days, tonal ad%ustment is usually only of value for special purposes or for reducing the severity of problems with historic recordings, or ones made incorrectly. There is therefore something of a 2theological# debate in 0i"$i as to whether people should have, or use, such systems at all. @urists say not. 6ealists find them useful. As with most engineering this is a case of BCer pays yer money and yer ta!es yer choiceDA 8.4 Special &urp!ses

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On previous pages we have seen circuits which show how an op"Amp could be used as part of a feedbac! amplifier or filter. In fact, Op"Amps have many other uses and we can give a few examples here %ust to illustrate the range of possibilities.

$igure &'9 shows a pair of circuits which we can use to integrate or differentiate a signal value with respect to time. The Integrator acts to provide an output level proportional to the time"integral of the input level. It provides an output voltage at a time, given by

where

represents the output voltage at some initial time,

, and

represents the output voltage at a later moment, . /ote that the output is actually proportional to mi"us the integral of the input value , and that there is a constant of proportionality, . This arrangement is useful whenever we want to integrate or sum over a series of values of a signal over some period of time. In practice we often arrange to add a switch connected across the capacitor and close this, to set and the instant we start the summing or integration. .ignal integration is a very useful function in signal and data collection as we fre1uently wish to sum signal levels to improve a measurement by performing an average over many readings.

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The Differentiator performs the opposite function. 0ere the output at some time, , will be

This allows us to observe the rate of change of a signal level. )/ote that the 4ifferentiator here is a completely different function to the 4ifferential amplifier we considered in earlier sections.* in both of the above circuits the scaling factor is called the Time Constant as it has the dimensions of time and is often represented by the symbol, .

$igure &'E shows two examples of circuits which combine an Op"Amp with diodes to perform some useful non"linear function. The logamp exploits the fact that the effective resistance of a diode varies with the applied voltage. $or a 2textboo!# diode we can say that the current and voltage will be lin!ed via an expression of the form

where

is 7olt+mann#s constant,

is the absolute temperature of the diode,

is the charge on an electron, and is the saturation current value of the diodes chosen. In the logamp circuit shown in figure &'E a pair of diodes replace the

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usual feedbac! resistor. /ow the Op"Amp has a very high differential gain. This means that when it can it tries to ad%ust its output to !eep its two input voltages very similar, and it also only draws a small input current. This means that the point where the resistor, , and the diodes meet will be held almost precisely at +ero volts to ensure that the voltage at the inverting input almost exactly matches the +ero potential applied to the non"inverting input. The low current re1uirement means that almost none of any current passing through the other components will flow in or out of the Op"Amp#s inputs. 0ence we can say that the potential across the diodes will e1ual and the potential across will e1ual expect the current in the pair of diodes to e1ual that through . ,e can also

.ince the diodes are connected in parallel, but facing opposing ways, the total current they pass when the output voltage is will be

,hereas the current through therefore find that

will be

. @utting these to be e1ual we

Clearly under most circumstances this would be a truly awful choice for an amplifier as it will distort the signal#s time"varying voltage pattern 1uite severely. 0owever its usefulness becomes apparent when we consider what happens when the voltages are large enough to ensure that ,e can then approximate expression &'F to .

which we can rearrange into

i.e. we find that when the signal levels are large enough the output voltage varies approximately as the natural log of the input voltage. 0ence the circuit#s name Logamp. The circuit is very useful for Compressing the range of voltage
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levels. This means that amplitude measurements become easier to ma!e, and signals easier to observe without becoming too small to notice or so large as to become overpowering. It can permit a system to wor! over a wider 4ynamic 6ange. The sacrifice is that the actual signal pattern will be deformed in the process. 7y the way, note that the amplifier is still voltage inverting so always has the opposite sign to . Also note that &.& is %ust an approximation and 2blows up# if you ma!e the error of assuming it is correct when approaches +eroA The second circuit shown in figure &'E acts as a positive pea! detector. In this case the diode is being used as a 2switch# that can only pass current in one direction. The precise form of its nonlinearity doesn#t matter. The Op"Amp tries to behave li!e a voltage buffer and assert a voltage on the capacitor which e1uals its input. 0owever it can only do this whilst the diode is prepared to conduct. 0ence when the input is greater to or e1ual to the voltage on the capacitor the circuit behaves in this way. 0owever whenever the input voltage falls below the voltage on the capacitor the diode becomes reverse biassed. The Op"Amp cannot then force the capacitor to discharge.The charge stored can only leave via the resistor, . 0ence the circuit tends to 2remember# most recent pea! positive input voltage level, but slowly forgets unless the voltage rises to a new pea!. If we wish we can remove the resistor and replace it with a switch. The output then always remains at whatever the pea! positive value of the input has been since the last time the switch was closed. The circuit is therefore useful for holding pea! values which only occur briefly. This function is useful in 2pea! hold# meters and displays. Summar' Cou should now understand the basic circuit arrangement used in most Op Amps and why it acts as a differential amplifier. The Class A output with small transistors also explains why most Op Amps can only output small current and power levels. Cou should now !now how Op Amps can be used to perform various linear and nonlinear functions. These include the linear examples of tone controls, differentiators, integrators as well as the nonlinear ones of :ogamps and pea! detectors.

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